


the boy whose voice she never heard

by ghostinthebook



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst, Gen, JCM doesn't show up but the story is kinda about him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 16:38:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17666201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostinthebook/pseuds/ghostinthebook
Summary: Clary finds out about her brother much earlier, because of a fight with her mother.





	the boy whose voice she never heard

**Author's Note:**

> This should work with both show and book canon, except for the fact that Clary doesn't learn about JCM until after she meets the Shadowhunters in both canons. But oh well. Enjoy this one-shot!

Clary will always remember the day she found out about Jonathan.

The day started out normal. Simon, who just got his driver’s license, picked her up to go to school. Then they started talking about crushes.

“C’mon Simon, Margot from Bio definitely has a crush on you. She always asks for you to be her lab partner. Without fail. Every lab day.”

“Are you sure it’s not because of my awesome biology skills?”

“Definitely. She checks you out every time you’re not looking, and if she wanted to pair with someone good at biology, she’d have paired with Charlie or Jenna.”

“True. But I’m still not gonna ask her out. And who are you to talk, I’ve seen that boy that sits in front of me in History stare at you so much you’d think you grew another head.”

They then started talking about that boy. Clary, admittedly, had a crush on him too, but now she can’t even remember his name. All she remembers is that she had his number and had already texted him a bit by the time she got back home. 

Jocelyn looked stressed already. With the anniversary of Clary’s father’s death coming up, and the rent due at the same time, it was understandably a hard time. As Clary learned later, it wasn’t Jonathan Clark’s death Jocelyn was mourning. It was Jonathan Morgenstern's. But not yet. It’s only a few minutes until she learns the truth.

“Clary, can I see your phone? I think someone who commissioned a painting somehow got your number instead of mine, and they said they would text the details of the painting today.”

Oh. That explained the weird text about art she got earlier. She handed over her phone.

Jocelyn opened up the texts. She had almost clicked on the text when another text caught her attention. 

“Who’s ‘BF’ with a lot of hearts after it? And don’t tell me it’s Simon, I can see his name here too so I know it’s not him.”

“Oh, it’s this boy in my History class. He asked me out and I said yes.”

Jocelyn’s eyes widened. “Then why does this latest text sound so creepy?”

To give her some credit, that text didn’t put the boy in the best light. It just so happened that the last thing he had texted was some objectifying remark about her body. When Clary saw that text when he first texted it, she had decided she’d go on one date, then dump him. Just to see if this was an outlier or if he was really like that.

In hindsight, she knows that wasn’t a good decision. She should’ve dumped him then, instead of waiting for the date. A date she’d never have, now.

But even though she knew her mom was right, deep down, she still wanted to defend this boy.

“I’m sure he meant it as a compliment, calm down, Mom. And just in case, I’ll bring my pepper spray on the date. Happy?”

“Oh, there is no way you’re going on a date with this creep, Clary. In fact, you’re not allowed to date him. Or anyone. Until you graduate high school.”

“Mom!!” Clary yelled. She makes one mistake, and this happens? “Why can’t you just let me do this one thing?”

“Because I don’t want to let what happened to your brother happen to you!”

Both Clary and Jocelyn froze after she said that. 

“I… I have a brother?”

“Not anymore. Because of my bad judgement, he… he…” Jocelyn broke off the sentence as she started to cry. She sat down on the couch, and Clary soon followed. 

“Mom, what happened? What does this have to do with who I date? And why didn’t you tell me I had a brother?” Clary was talking too fast, but she needed to know what was going on. She had a brother? Since when?

“Your brother’s name was Jonathan. His father was abusive. I was planning on running away, just me and Jonathan, but he found out. He set the house on fire. It ended up killing him in the process but it also killed… it killed…” Jocelyn started to sob.

Clary would later find out that Jonathan’s father was her father too, and that he wasn’t dead. And neither was Jonathan. And that Jocelyn was still lying about a few of those details, the details of Shadowhunters, and of the Circle, and that whole world she did not know of.

But for now, all she knew was that she had a brother. A brother that was killed by Jocelyn’s abusive ex...husband? Boyfriend? She hadn’t clarified. But that wasn’t the important part. The important part was that she had a brother. 

She also knew the link between her current problem and this story now. Her brother’s father had probably said something like that, so her mom had found it too close to home. Oh, that boy was not getting a date now.

She had a brother.

Clary started to cry, holding on to her mother. Jocelyn held her daughter back, and cried too.

They stayed like that for who knows how long, crying and hugging, until Jocelyn fell asleep.

Clary snuck off to her room and opened up her phone. First, she blocked and deleted that boy’s number. Then she called another boy. The boy whose voice she needed to hear the most right now. 

Simon.

“Hey Clary, isn’t it a bit late to call? I guess you’re staying up late for this English homework too. I can send you a link to the Cliff Notes of the book if you need it for the summary… wait are you crying?”

Hearing his voice was enough to make Clary cry again, so yeah, she was crying. There were times that Clary felt like Simon was like a brother to her, so hearing him was both too much and what she needed right then.

“Clary, you okay? Where are you? Do you need me to come get you? Clary?”

“I’m okay, Simon. I’m at home. Can you come here? I… I need you.”

Simon was there only twenty minutes later.

“What’s going on Clary?” He asked while hugging her.

“Simon… I… I had a brother.”

“What?”

“Apparently, my mom had a kid before me. His name was Jonathan. And he died before I ever got the chance to meet him.” Clary was sobbing before she even finished the sentence. 

Simon held on to her. Talked to her the entire night about her brother if she wanted to talk about it, and other stuff if she didn’t. They missed school the next day.

“Family emergency,” Clary had said.

“I’m sick,” Simon had lied.

Eventually, Clary felt somewhat better. She knew that her brother was in a better place. Later, she would learn that wasn’t the case, but right then, she felt happier when she thought of him.

Her brother, Jonathan.


End file.
